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One Simple Test to Be Sure That Your Baby Can Hear

By: Manuel Caballero

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Less than two days after being born, Sean was already undergoing a test to measure his ability to hear, without ever having to be roused from sleep. He was wheeled up to what looked every bit like a personal computer that had some wires running from it. The audiologist took hold of one of the wires which had a small plastic probe at it's tip, and she gingerly put the probe in the baby's right ear. She then went to the computer's keyboard and typed some things in. Complicated looking multi-colored graphics were shown on the computer screen.

I visited this research institute that focused on hearing to see this procedure, which can allow children with hearing issues to have a head start on the problems that they will encounter in life. 24,000 newborn babies each year are born with some degree of hearing loss, as well as 4000 each year born completely deaf. This process, known as the otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test, was conceived for allowing families and pediatricians know in a matter of hours following birth on the strength of their newborns hearing; it is an opportunity for parents to give their children a chance to live their life with minimal, or no disabilities, at all.

Too many times a child reaches the age of two or three before it is found that they have a problem with their hearing. This may lead to devastating results. Parents may watch their child struggle with speech and language skills. They become disconnected to the environment around them when they cannot hear, which can lead to their speaking real words being significantly delayed. Research shows us that the first two years of life are essential for building the skills necessary to develop intellectually and emotionally. In certain instances, an erroneous diagnosis of mental inadequacy is made for a child who has hearing loss.

Testing the hearing of newborns used to be complex and expensive before the introduction of OAE testing in 1990. The auditory brain stem response was a highly precise test, according to one audiologist. Electrodes are hooked up to the child's body to gauge their auditory nerve activity as it makes its way up to the brain. Unfortunately, this test takes over a half-hour to conduct, costs approximately $90 to run and must be conducted by a licensed physician or audiologist. It's naive to think it's an efficient way to test all the newborns around the nation, there aren't enough people qualified to give the test.

The advantages of OAE are, that it is much less costly, and a full time audiologist is not a requirement. It is a simplistic 5-minute process that gauges hearing by assessing the cochlea's minuscule hair cell vibrations as they are subjected to sound. In Sean's case, the probe delivered sound into his ear, and when his hair cells vibrated in reaction to the sound, the microphone was able to detect it. Back with baby Sean, the audiologist moved him slightly to his other side and repeated the process, smiling as the results flashed across her screen. The newborn baby had almost perfect hearing.

For infants who fail the first test, a second one is completed one week later. The reason is that newborns often have fluid in the ear canal that can lead to poor test results. After the second stage of testing, the auditory brain stem response test is performed by the audiologist to figure out what the problem is. With all of this relevant information in hand, the audiologist, pediatrician, and parents meet to talk about ways to deal with the issue.

If the hearing loss is minor, hearing aids can be provided at three months of age. In some cases, that will solve the problem and the baby will be able to hear normally. A permanent resolution to hearing loss can be undertaken when a child is 18 months old, at which time a surgeon can likely do a cochlear implant.

When a baby is born with significant hearing loss, they will need to learn about their environment through visual cues and examples, which will require additional attention from their parents. If the children who experience such problems receive this extra attention, they will normally develop regularly. American sign language, lip-reading, hearing aids and cued speech are all good ways to help with children who are faced with hearing problems.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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